Man held on suspicion of murder after German festival knife attack

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe (Uli Deck/dpa via AP/PA)

A Syrian man has been ordered held on suspicion of murder and membership in a terrorist organisation in connection with the Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the German city’s 650th anniversary.

A judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ordered 26-year-old Issa Al H. held pending further investigation and a possible indictment after federal prosecutors said he shared the radical ideology of the so-called Islamic State group — and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the head and upper body.